Has Anyone Here Kicked Themselves In The A$$ For Passing Up A Good Offer?

I was just wondering if anyone here has gone through what I am going through. I had run into an old acquaintance a couple of months ago. He said that he was developing an app for the android market and that if I would build him a website, do the seo for it and help make the app go viral that he would give me a small stake in the profits. It just so happened that at that same time I was trying to get my IM biz off the ground and was working out of my living room. It sounded interesting but I could not envision how it would work, also I was way to focused on what I was doing and did not end up getting around to calling him until today. Come to find out that his app was just starting to blow up and that he had already been on all of the news stations in the area and had several offers. He basically said to me that I was too late and had missed the boat. I felt like such a jackass. The only thing that I could do was just try and take away something from this. I learned a lesson a valuable lesson. And I also used his success as an inspiration and fuel to drive me forward with what I am focusing on.

And for anyone wondering, the app that he created is an app that would be used for emergency situations. It is a sort of panic button on your phone that when pressed it would call 911 while sending them your gps location and snap pictures.

Anyone have the same sort of experience and want to share what they went through?

When I was in college (like now), I did a lot of web development online and had a bunch of friends in the social marketing world on IM that I talked to from time to time. If I had a problem, I could ask the advice of an expert in some field and vice versa. Had a lot of good people on there that I talked to on a daily basis.

One of them offered me to be part of his project that he has been working on himself for the past year. On the surface it didn't look like much, but for what it did it was great. It appeared to be a small niche, and didn't look like it would be easy to monetize. Anyway, I forgot about it for a few years, and then a few years ago I saw it all over blogs everywhere, and the social networking sites for its launch. I kicked myself then, and I'm kicking myself even more now because it's now one of the top 500 sites on the web (based on traffic). Can't say which site, but I wish I could go back and take it on.

It's all hindsight. The chances of them being successful were pretty low. Opportunites like that come around often, and when you sit and look at it, it simply doesn't make sense, so you pass. Obviously once and while they pan out. To the guy above, you coulda been working on the project month after month, and seeing it go no where, and you probably would have wanted out on it anyways. But the creator kept pushing on it, which seems like it could have been well over a year, maybe even two years. Think if you put all that time in and it turned into nothing. Just focus on your own thing.

I'll tell you about the opposite. I have a friend that lucked out and fell into the webcam business. He was making very good money, and really didn't have a clue what he was doing. He broke off and we started our own site. I was an idiot, I paid for servers, stuff like that and never asked for reimbursement. I wanted a small percentage to look after the site, market, etc. But it was hard to bust my ass while he barely did anything, and I get the small chunk and he gets almost everything. He really had no clue what he was doing, terrible customer service, didn't care if his customers were happy, etc. He basically let it go to shit, and I barely got any money out of him, and costed me $300+ per month for servers, plus a ton of custom software we did. It's my fault for never asking for payment though. But I wasted a shit load of time and money on this project. A project that could have turned into a gold mine, but he was too lazy, and lacked any business sense what so ever. It was my best friend and hurt our friendship for a long time. It still bothers me, but we are still friends. He's a talker, he'll have ideas that seem like they can be great, but he doesn't really have a plan to get there. But he has some really good connections, which is why sometimes I have to think hard about jumping aboard anything.

So just think, for every one that has been successful, there are probably a hundred that would have cost you a ton of money and time.

So just think, for every one that has been successful, there are probably a hundred that would have cost you a ton of money and time.

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Very true. I also like what you said about sticking to your own thing. That guy had a lot of focus and drive for what he was doing and I might not of had his same vision and drive. I am just sticking to IM. So far my biz is doing way better than expected and I don't know where it would be if I had a distraction.

A friend of mine from high school was playing online poker back in like 2003 and making a lot of money playing heads-up on pokerstars at the $200+ level. We played in home games all the time during summer break and everyone was too money-conscious to straight up ask him how he did it and if he would be willing to teach. I ended up learning to play those games on my own a few years later, but by then the games had gotten much harder and my friend had already made a million bucks.

In the words of Richard Branson: opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

I used to fret and beat myself up about missing out on good opportunities. Then one day I realized that, for one, I probably wouldn't find it to be such a good opportunity six months down the road, and for two, an even better one was just on its way towards me. Or I was on my way towards it.

only give the past a few seconds of your time as you can't change it. focus on the now.

Take your time and look at each option that is given to you.

You could have joined those deals and they could have went bust its a 50/50 shot when something is starting out. You have to look at the now and make the best choice and go on with your life. Sometimes we pick them sometimes we don't.

In the words of Richard Branson: opportunities are like buses, there's always another one coming.

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Hey that's what Gucci Man says about women LOL.

This isn't about an opportunity per se but a great idea I had for an invention. I know as entrepreneurs we all have a million of these ideas This was one I seen come to life though and just googled it and damn someone did it even better/simpler than I wanted to.

About 10 years ago I dated this girl. She had a BIG purse and we were at a bonfire party and she went in there and used to keep a small flashlight in there to look through it. It was a simple enough idea so great, my idea of purses w/ lights was born. I even sent away for 1 of them patent kits on tv but they wanted a ton of cash to actually get it through and someone told me it was a scam as none of the products ever come to light (no pun intended). I did nothing with it because I didn't want to be a purse designer. I made it too difficult for me as a guy. A few years later I seen on the news a local woman who created a purse w/ a light in it. It was plain black. I was awed to see my idea swiped, but hell she took action on it and made it come to life.

After seeing this post, I just googled purses w/ lights in them and saw an even simpler spin on the idea. Someone made simple purse lights in 6 different designs that could fit into any purse. They sold them in sets of 3 for 9.95+4.95 S/H. So $15 for something that costs less than $3 for all 3 to be made and a few bucks shipping.

Not kicking myself over it but thanks for posting this OP as I seen once again shit can be simplified and simpler is better in marketing.

I have found two niches with average searches count but REALLY high cpc and low competition AND emd availibe but i don't have money to buy 2x .org domain. If someone will buy it before i find money i will kill myself,lol.

I just wanted to update this post for anyone that viewed it. I talked to the people with the app and I actually ended up negotiating a deal for 12% of the company. I missed out and talked my way back in. So I guess the lesson learned is even if a good opportunity passes you by it may not be as far away as you think. But also what I have taken away from some of the other posts by people is you can not get side tracked too much by other projects because you will then never be able to focus the attention needed on your own venture.

Well I remember being about 12 years old and getting my first computer. It was a 486DX Laser loaded with the latest and greatest windows 3.1. I used it for a week and saw what huge potential this new windows and microsoft had. I remember telling my father how great it was going to be and that we really needed to take some money and invest in microsoft stock. However he was a prick and dident listen. I'm now 28 and it would have been nice to have some of those dividends now lol

One that still jerks my chain is when I had the opportunity to buy Blockbuster Video stock just before Wayne Huizenga took the company over. I put 5K into the stock, lost 1 K of it after about 6 months and sold it and just figured I lost 1K.

One that still jerks my chain is when I had the opportunity to buy Blockbuster Video stock just before Wayne Huizenga took the company over. I put 5K into the stock, lost 1 K of it after about 6 months and sold it and just figured I lost 1K.

Had I kept that stock, the 5K would have been 100K after a bit.

And that was it the late 80's.

No patience no benefit.

I was and still am a knucklehead the majority of time.

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I have just recently got into investing in stocks. My first investment was with this company TWER. I think (and hope) that they are going to go real big. Their stocks are only $3.00 a share and they are growing very fast. They have doubled since last year.

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